


Drowning (in You)

by TruthandLies



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Break Up, F/F, Friends to Lovers, Thunder and Lightning, stolen touches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 13:21:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14716847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TruthandLies/pseuds/TruthandLies
Summary: Lucas has always been Riley’s excuse. Her head-cheerleader-dating-captain-of-the-football-team, straight-girl-in-love-with-straight-boy, normal-normal-normal excuse.Maya is her cataclysm.





	Drowning (in You)

Lightning sizzles through the sky in golden streaks, illuminating a world gone crazy with spring storms.

But it’s nothing compared to the storm crashing through Maya. The fucking monsoon that started the moment Riley the Tempest bounced onto her lap.

The two of them are crammed with their four friends in the back of a cab – because, surprise, Lucas the Good, Lucas the Boy Scout, Lucas the Frickin’ Huckleberry forgot to fill his van with gas. A van that now perches on the edge of the Interstate, floating in the sea of New York’s storm, four hours from being serviced by the city’s over-busy tow truck.

For fear of drowning in this deluge, Maya and her gang of squirrels took a cab.

Which brings her to the second thing Huckleberry’s forgotten.

He’s forgotten what it’s been like lately between his girlfriend and Maya.

He’s forgotten all of the stolen touches. 

Touches that happen between junior-year classes, when Riley collects her books from her locker and Maya just happens to reach inside, too, claiming she’s tossed a pencil or a notebook inside, but always lingering to caress Riley’s hand.

Touches that happen when the gang’s sitting around the couch, watching movies. And Riley moves from Lucas’ side to snuggle closer to Maya. To lay her head on Maya’s shoulder. To sneak her lips into the crook of Maya’s neck. To breathe in deep as Maya shivers. And as Lucas glares, piercing Maya with eyes so dark blue, they thunder with the threat of storms.

There are other touches, too.

Like the touches that happened tonight.

The touches that happened after they all ditched sixth period to hit a concert on the outskirts of the city. The band plays, and Riley just happens to dance into Maya’s embrace. Just happens to press her back against Maya’s chest. Just happens to reach for Maya’s arms, to wind them around her middle. Just happens to clasp Maya’s hands, holding them in place.

Just happens to miss Lucas tugging Maya from the girls’ room and into a dark corner of the hallway.

“What the hell, Lucas?” Maya shakes her wrist, where she’s damn certain Huckleberry’s left an imprint of his fingerprints. “Have you been drinking?”

Lucas tips his cowboy hat, studying Maya from beneath the shadow of its brim. “You and Riley. What’s going on there, Maya?”

In the heat of the concert hall, Maya’s skin prickles with a sudden chill. “No clue what you’re talking about, Huckleberry.” _Every clue what you’re talking about, Huckleberry._ Her hands still thrill from Riley’s touch.

Lucas grips the wall, steadying himself. Looking every bit the crazy bastard who got himself kicked out of school in Texas five years earlier. “She likes you. I know she does. As more than a friend.” He presses his lips together. “You like her, too.”

The floor is fascinating. Littered with discarded cups and assorted objects _._ Mia kicks at a broken comb.“What do you want me to say?”

Lucas’ sigh is echoey. “Just…” He kicks out with his huckleberry boot. “…Stop. Riley and I have been together three years. What you’re doing? Sucks.”

Maya’s chest twists. “Lucas…”

But when she glances up, he’s already stalking away, a tick in his jaw.

Maya toys with a discarded cup, rolling it beneath her boot. _He’s right. What we’re doing does suck._

It doesn’t matter that she’s been in love with Riley since seventh.

Or that Riley touches her in ways she’d never touched Lucas. With Lucas, Riley’s touches are stiff. With Maya, Riley’s touches linger and melt into Maya's skin, leaving trails of heat.

It doesn’t matter, either, that when Maya sneaks back into the concert, hiding at the back, Riley seeks her out even as Lucas takes Riley in his arms and sways with her. Sways with her the way Maya had swayed with her through almost every song.

It sucks. It sucks. It sucks.

But it makes so much fucking sense. Riley and Maya. Honey and Peaches. Thunder and Lightning.

Lucas has always been Riley’s excuse. Her head-cheerleader-dating-captain-of-the-football-team, straight-girl-in-love-with-straight-boy, normal-normal-normal excuse.

Maya is her cataclysm.

A cataclysm who holds her in the back of the cab. A cab they hailed because Lucas had been so upset when Riley left him on the dance floor to search for Maya, that he’d forgotten to fill his van with gas.

A cataclysm who slides her hands along Riley’s arms, memorizing the texture of Riley’s skin.

A cataclysm who bites back a moan when the not-so-normal not-so-straight girl’s lips find the crook of Maya’s neck. And dare to brush it with the lightest of kisses.

The cab screeches to a stop outside Riley’s apartment building. And Lucas pins them both with his glare. “Out,” he says, jabbing his finger at the rain-slicked streets of New York.

Riley stiffens in Maya’s arms. “What?” she squeaks.

Their friends refuse to look at them.

Farkle stares at the windshield, Smackle at the floor, Zay at the tick in Lucas’ jaw.

Lucas pushes open his door. “We need to talk.”

Riley goes from stiff to trembling. “Okay. Okay, we’ll talk.” She clicks open her door and slides from Maya’s lap, tumbling into the city deluge.

The rain plasters Riley’s hair to her face, making her look five years younger. If it weren’t for Riley’s sharpened cheekbones and the not-so-innocent gleam of her eyes, she might be the twelve-year-old girl who first made Maya’s heart sprint.

Maya swallows the dryness from her throat and climbs from the backseat, closing her eyes when the rain assaults her face. When she opens them again, she is half-blinded by the golden strands sticking to her eyelids.

Lucas marches around the cab. His feet crash through puddles, kicking up rain. His eyes flash in the sizzle of lightning, his hands clenching-unclenching in the clash of thunder. 

Maya tugs Riley into her arms. She’s got no idea what Lucas has planned, but she’s not letting Huckleberry get close to Riley with the way he’s stalking through the storm.

“That,” he shouts above the noises of the storm. He points his finger at Riley, at Maya, at Riley-and-Maya. “That’s what I want to talk about.”

Riley squeezes Maya’s arm. “Lucas.” Her voice is half-sob, half-whine. The broken cadence of a girl caught in a situation she cannot control.

Lucas throws out his hands. “You said it would go away, Riley. You swore. But it never has, has it?”

Riley collapses against Maya’s chest. She traces the raindrops speckling Maya’s leather jacket, almost as if she’s playing connect-the-unconnectable-dots. “No.” The word is almost silent, almost indiscernible.

But Maya hears it. And her heart catapults into her throat. _Wait. What?_

Lucas hears it, too, and his entire body deflates. “That’s what I thought.” He slides his fingers across the brim of his rain-drenched hat, half-hiding his face behind his hand. “Okay, here’s the deal. I’m not gonna pretend this doesn’t hurt, because it does.”

“Lucas, I’m so sorry.” Riley’s voice cracks. “I never meant –”

“Stop.” Lucas holds up his hand, leaving his face still half-hidden behind his hat. “I don’t need apologies, Riley. I know, okay? But I also know we’ve been friends for a really long time. All of us.” He throws his hand back toward the cab, where the others gape at them from the backseat. “And I’m not going to let anything come between us.”

Maya’s catapulting heart slips back into her chest. “What are you suggesting?”

Lucas shrugs. And sighs. And glances up from beneath his hat, treating them both to a gaze watery and red. “Be happy. And I’ll find a way to deal.”

It’s a gift. Huckleberry’s giving them a gift. 

And all Maya’s ever given him is a broken heart, after stealing his girl. __  
  
Riley shakes with pent-up sobs. “Are you…?”

Lucas reaches out for Riley’s arm. “I’m breaking up with you, Riley.” He squeezes her wrist. “I’m sorry. It’s just not working out.”

“I’m sorry, too,” she whispers, cupping his hand.

Seconds later, Lucas turns on his boot and sloshes back through the puddles. He disappears into the cab, where their friends all raise their hands in farewell.

Their hands remain raised even as the cab streaks away through the rain, and Riley turns to stare at Maya.

They meet each other’s eyes in a silver flash of night, their gazes reflecting more truths than Maya has ever before spoken.

But one truth hangs between them, an invisible shield.

Maya skims the top of a puddle with her boot, willing the words to the tip of her tongue. “What did he mean, Riley?” The words taste like dust in her mouth. “When he said you tried to make something go away?”

Riley squeezes her eyes shut. A tremor flits across her face. “Maya…” Maya’s name is a plaintive cry.

 _Oh._ _It’s us._ _She’s been trying to make us go away._ Maya’s throat collapses beneath a swell of not-gonna-surface-never-gonna-surface tears. “Poof then,” she murmurs, flicking her hand through the chasm between them. “Poof, Riles. It’s gone. _We’re_ gone.”

Maya is her cataclysm.

And if Riley doesn’t want to drown, Maya’s not going to force her.

She turns on her heel and strides toward the apartment. 

All she wants is to drown.

Riley’s footsteps thunder behind her. “Maya. Maya, where are you going? Maya.”

Maya pushes open the door. “Swimming. I’m going swimming.” _Drowning. I’m going drowning._

Riley sprints up beside her. “But you don’t have a suit.”

Maya flicks her hands down at her drenched clothes. “I don’t really need one.”

She reaches the door to the apartment pool. Her hand shaking, she pushes it into her pocket and pulls out her key – the one Matthews gave her when it was Riley and Maya, Maya and Riley. Thunder and Lightning, forever.

Riley catches Maya’s elbow. “Please, Peaches. Let’s just talk.”

“Don’t want to talk.” Maya pulls her arm away. “Wanna swim.” _Wanna drown. In you. In us. In everything._  
  
The pool ripples beneath fluorescent lights, a square of blue against an expanse of white tile. A cold promise of oblivion.

“Come on, Riles. Last one in is a rotten somethin’.” Maya breaks into a sprint, squishing along the floor, her feet submerged in the puddles in her boots. She kicks the boots from her feet, leaving them in nothing but soaked socks.

Riley rushes after her. “Maya, you’re crazy. We can’t go swimming in our clothes.”

“Watch me.” She lets out a wild whoop and then, squeezing her nose between thumb and forefinger, she jumps.

The water rushes up to meet her, an endless expanse of blue closing over her head, blurring her eyes, carrying her down-down-down.

She sinks to the bottom, her feet meeting white tile, and allows all thoughts to escape her mind. Everything-everything-everything.

Everything but Riley.

There’s another splash.

And a pair of legs drift above her head.

Riley’s legs.

Riley’s taken the leap.

Her mind empty of all non-Riley thoughts, Maya floats on up to the surface of the pool. 

Her head breaks surface. 

She wipes the beads of water from her eyes, leaving them a little stinging, a little swollen. 

Riley stares back.

“Do you really think,” Riley says, whipping her arms across the surface of the pool, treading water, “that I could ever forget you, Maya? That I could ever forget us?”

Riley’s gaze is so open, so deep, there’s every possibility of drowning in the bottomless expanse of brown.

But Maya doesn’t care. Because with Riley, drowning doesn’t mean death. Drowning means new life.

Maya kicks closer. Close enough to feel Riley’s breath caress her cheek. “How long, Riles?” Treading water, too, she slides a strand of brown behind Riley’s ear. Her fingers linger along the shell, stroking the softness of Riley’s skin. “How long have you been trying to get over us?” _Have you been trying as long as me?_  
  
Riley rolls her cheek into Maya’s palm. There is no hesitation in her gaze. There is a secret. There is a dare. “Freshman year.” The words are honest. Crisp. “How about you?”

Maya licks the moisture from her lips. “Seventh grade. I gave up in tenth.”

“Funny.” Riley smiles. “I gave up at the beginning of eleventh.”

Maya’s breath catches. “So you’re done running?”

“Oh, Maya.” Riley slides her lips to Maya's palm. She brushes it with a kiss. “I could never run from you. I think you know that.”

“Yeah.” Maya captures her lip between her teeth and nods. _Yeah. I do._

The secrets-and-dares in Riley’s eyes creep into her smile. “Thunder,” she says, lifting her hand.

Maya grins. “Lightning.” She clasps her hand around Riley’s.

Riley’s gaze dips to Maya’s mouth, and then back up to latch onto her eyes. “Forever,” she whispers.

And the word is not a word at all. But a promise of everything they are, everything they’ve been. Everything they will ever be.

“Forever,” Maya echoes.

She closes the distance, pressing her lips to Riley’s. Sealing forever with a kiss.

A kiss that lingers as Riley’s touch melts into Maya’s skin.

That night, they do not drown. They learn how to swim.


End file.
